As a single mother of three kids working two jobs, snorting crystal meth made Debra Collins feel like she could "climb a mountain. " "I felt like I was a fully charged light bulb. " But then Collins lost her job. Bills went unpaid. Checks bounced. She racked up hundreds of dollars of bank overdraft fees. Eventually, Collins had to give up her three children. She became homeless. Her addiction worsened. "I was in such a black, black place," said Collins, who, sitting in a downtown Los Angeles office building in black slacks, chic glasses and a flowered blouse, seemed light years away from being a rail-thin meth addict with skin drooping off a sunken face.

Sunday, Aug. 17 proved to be a wake-up call for the Korean families of La Crescenta. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in collaboration with the International Drug Eradication Academy, organized an exclusive drug eradication seminar for the Korean community. Held at Vision Regeneration Instruction Mission (VRIM) Presbyterian Church on Foothill Boulevard and Dunsmore Avenue, the seminar attracted a number of Korean families, who gathered to learn about drug abuse and its effect on local schools and residential areas.

ANI AMIRKHANIAN Perhaps nothing is more painful than knowing someone with a drug problem. Drug abuse destroys lives and families, and can even change the dynamics of a community helping to educate its citizens to better understand the effects of this disease. Such is the case with the Armenian community in Glendale. In a culture where certain issues simply are not discussed by many families, let alone confronted, drug abuse largely is a taboo subject.

As a parent, I can't help but be horrified every time I read the newspaper and find out that the latest fashion in our schools is a drug named Ecstasy. This drug is as dangerous as heroin or LSD and our youngsters are the dealers and consumers of it. Depression, memory loss and permanent brain damage are some of the results of taking this drug. Schools should help parents to educate kids about drugs, with a more aggressive approach. Our kids spend about seven hours a day, five days a week, learning grammar, science, history, and math, for more than 10 years before college.

Ryan Carter Inside the new offices of Wendy Walsh and Carrie Maher, couches, desks and paintings make the space seem like any suite. But in a back room, hanging on the wall are two large banners itemizing the 12 steps and "traditions" for alcohol recovery. The women recently opened Avalon Center for Change, Inc. for addicts and their families to come for counseling in an anonymous setting. The nonprofit drug- and alcohol-abuse counseling center had its grand opening May 4. Along with dealing with alcohol and drug abuse, services include treatment for anger management, grief recovery and dual drug abuse and mental-health problems.

o7Here are a few of the issues the council will consider Tuesday night. f7 SPECIAL COUNCIL ELECTION The council will consider ordering a special election to take place to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Councilwoman Stacey Murphy. The nomination period would take place during the month of October with an anticipated election date of Jan. 24, 2006. The clerk's office is asking for $150,000 to pay for election costs. WHAT TO EXPECT The council will likely order the special election take place.

When most people think of their child coming in contact with drugs, they think of a wild party or a dark alley where drugs and money are exchanged, and the drug user walks off with a cellaphane bag. But more and more the scene is a child reaching into the medicine cabinet at home, taking pills from mom or dad, hiding them in a pocket or backpack and walking to school as if nothing were out of the ordinary. According to a survey released in 2008 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 15.4% of 12th graders reported using a prescription drug non-medically within the past year.

The Crescenta Valley Drug and Alcohol Prevention Coalition plans to host a "Prescription Drug Take-Back Day" today to combat the rise in pharmaceutical drug abuse. "There is an alarming trend of pharmaceuticals being abused to substitute for illicit drugs," said Glendale Police Officer Joe Allen in a statement. "We want to remove some of these unused, expired medications from people's shelves in order to minimize their abuse or misuse. " Getting rid of unused medicine cuts off an easy access point to drugs for teenagers who may be raiding their home medicine cabinets - or those in their friends' homes, said Coalition Executive Director Suzy Jacobs.

Amber Willard GLENDALE -- Joseph Klocki was trying to get his life back in order by asking for help from county agencies in providing housing and drug abuse programs, his family said. Klocki had been to the county Department of Public Social Services' Glendale office, trying to get a hotel voucher when he was denied earlier this month, his former wife said. Described by Christine Whitfield as frustrated with a system he had paid into for more than 30 years as a union carpenter, Klocki went to the top of the agency's parking structure and jumped to his death.

As a single mother of three kids working two jobs, snorting crystal meth made Debra Collins feel like she could "climb a mountain. " "I felt like I was a fully charged light bulb. " But then Collins lost her job. Bills went unpaid. Checks bounced. She racked up hundreds of dollars of bank overdraft fees. Eventually, Collins had to give up her three children. She became homeless. Her addiction worsened. "I was in such a black, black place," said Collins, who, sitting in a downtown Los Angeles office building in black slacks, chic glasses and a flowered blouse, seemed light years away from being a rail-thin meth addict with skin drooping off a sunken face.

The Crescenta Valley Drug and Alcohol Prevention Coalition plans to host a "Prescription Drug Take-Back Day" today to combat the rise in pharmaceutical drug abuse. "There is an alarming trend of pharmaceuticals being abused to substitute for illicit drugs," said Glendale Police Officer Joe Allen in a statement. "We want to remove some of these unused, expired medications from people's shelves in order to minimize their abuse or misuse. " Getting rid of unused medicine cuts off an easy access point to drugs for teenagers who may be raiding their home medicine cabinets - or those in their friends' homes, said Coalition Executive Director Suzy Jacobs.

For recovering addict Alexandra Datig, marijuana was a gateway drug that led her down a path of heartache and destruction. Datig - an anti-drug activist who rallied against the marijuana legalization initiative Proposition 19 last year - relayed her downward spiral during a meeting Monday organized by the Crescenta Valley Drug and Alcohol Prevention Coalition, which has been working to combat drug and alcohol use among teens in the foothills....

A 21-year-old pop singer for the group Girlicious pleaded guilty this week to a felony possessing cocaine charge after Glendale police in March reportedly found more than a dozen small packages of cocaine in her purse. Natalie Mejia, a Diamond Bar resident, had originally entered a not guilty plea in April to one felony count of possession of cocaine with the intent to sell. But Mejia changed her plea Wednesday in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pasadena after prosecutors offered her a deal requiring her to enroll in a narcotics abuse treatment program and stay out of trouble for 18 months, officials said.

LA CRESCENTA — The Crescenta Valley Drug and Alcohol Prevention Coalition on Tuesday was awarded a major federal grant that will total $625,000 over the next five years as they work to thwart substance abuse among local teens. The Office of National Drug Control Policy selected the coalition and 168 other groups to receive the funding after determining they had show "significant reductions" in substance abuse over a 30-day period for teenagers, said the agency's spokesman, Daren Briscoe.

Glendale Police Officer Craig Tweedy flashed a pen-sized light into the eyes of fellow officers, testing several techniques Wednesday used to determine whether they were under the influence of drugs. The officers passed the physical exams with flying colors while also getting a lesson on properly administering the seven-step drug abuse recognition process. The officers check the way a person?s eyes move vertically and horizontally, and if their eyes can converge to the center with ease.

Crescenta Valley High School is a natural Ground Zero for parents, teachers, coaches and other adult trustees to at once gauge the drug-use problem in the area and address it. And so a voluntary drug testing program — in which students agree to take random drug tests, with results sent directly to parents — is the sort of innovative response, and activist role, that government rarely gets right. In this regard, Glendale Unified should be commended. Now, the ball is squarely in the court of parents.

When most people think of their child coming in contact with drugs, they think of a wild party or a dark alley where drugs and money are exchanged, and the drug user walks off with a cellaphane bag. But more and more the scene is a child reaching into the medicine cabinet at home, taking pills from mom or dad, hiding them in a pocket or backpack and walking to school as if nothing were out of the ordinary. According to a survey released in 2008 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 15.4% of 12th graders reported using a prescription drug non-medically within the past year.

GLENDALE — A project to remeasure quality-of-life issues in Glendale moved forward Monday, six years after the original findings on public health and education were published. The updated Quality of Life Indicators report will compare current rates of alcohol and drug abuse, causes of death, air quality, traffic safety and other indexes to those published in the original 2002 report and is sure to influence future policy-making at City Hall. While the report is not a policy-setting document, it is on track to be released in April, at about the same time City Hall holds the citywide election.